Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
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| Established | 1961 |
|---|---|
| Budget | $75 million (2012) |
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Field of research
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Plasma physics |
| Vice-President | David J. McComas, Vice-President for PPPL |
| Director | Dr. Terrence K. Brog (interim) |
| Address | 100 Stellarator Road, Princeton New Jersey |
| Location |
Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, United States 40°20′56″N 74°36′08″W / 40.348825°N 74.602183°WCoordinates: 40°20′56″N 74°36′08″W / 40.348825°N 74.602183°W |
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Zip code
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08536 |
| Campus | Forrestal Campus |
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Operating agency
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Princeton University |
| Website | www |
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science located on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, though with a Princeton address. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source. It grew out of the top secret Cold War project to control thermonuclear reactions, called Project Matterhorn. In 1961, after declassification, Project Matterhorn was renamed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Lyman Spitzer, Jr., a professor of Astronomy at Princeton University, had for many years been involved in the study of very hot rarefied gases in interstellar space. He was inspired by the fascinating, but erroneous claims of controlled nuclear fusion achieved in Argentina by Ronald Richter, Spitzer. In 1950, he conceived of a plasma being confined in a figure-eight-shaped tube by an externally generated magnetic field, where the ionized hydrogen gas would fuse into helium, releasing energy for the production of power. He called this concept the stellarator, and took this design before the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington. As a result of this meeting and a review of the invention by designated scientists throughout the nation, the stellarator proposal was funded in 1951 as Project Matterhorn. In 1958, this magnetic fusion research was declassified following the 1955 United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. This generated an influx of graduate students eager to learn the "new" physics, which in turn influenced the lab to concentrate more on basic research.
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